A system that would load chunks of code out of MySQL and eval them in place.
Magic variables with magic meanings... shudder
Lots of things are possible - but not everything is a good idea - or is, but could be done in a clearer way.
I used to work at places where we cared deeply about our code. You should see some of the code reviews from one of the places, sometimes they got kinda ridiculous and people got into arguments about coding style and the discussion never ended... But the code was great. I kept it for some time after leaving the job and I looked at it to see how good a Rails project can be. Ah, we had over 90% code coverage from the beginning too.
Without Rails, I don't think that codebase would have been as maintainable as it was.
Then at my next job after that, I was hired as a Rails developer. Rails was a dependency and they used controllers and views and wrote the most insane code I have ever seen. Not that many tests, and the tests we had required a significant amount of setup and no one really knew how to run them (and make them pass).
I'm used to Rails being nice and friendly to work with, so joining a project where they fucked up everything really sucked, because I know what it's like to work in a good rails app.
You should check out Scott Wlaschin's talk, Domain Modeling with F# if you get the chance. https://vimeo.com/97507575
It might be hard to believe now, but Rails also went through this stage of vocal supporters advocating for it over alternatives. If you go back and watch the introduction video [1], you have DHH creating a blog in 15 minutes using RoR. I remember being impressed by it and vocally pushing for it where I worked then. :)
Can you give examples of the 'lot of vocal people' saying 'you should be doing everything in Go or Angular'? I don't see this. I only hear this kind of black/white sentiment when filtered via junior devs.
Experienced devs I know get there are trade-offs. And I don't see anyone on the React/Angular/Vue teams saying that server-sidey Django/Rails/etc. apps are 'wrong'.
Where's the evidence for this claim DHH/Rails is the only rational force in a sea of extremists?
(Of course the dull reality with real apps is "it's complicated" and most devs are busy grappling with that).
... Can we please call it Rusty Rails?
Nope. This is a misnomer that get's passed around a lot, and it's not based on anything factual. It's also dangerous, because people will read that and think "oh, i guess rails is bad". but it's not.
When you leverage the framework and best practices, it's great. There are different styles that can make things more complex, sure - but that's by no means the fault of rails.
People can go overboard at any level of the stack - rails won't stop you from this. Things can get sloppy and not perform efficiently - or become convoluted. again - not the fault of rails.
Sometimes, you need a little magic. Ruby (and rails) makes this possible. But if you rely heavily on magic, it'll bite you in the end.
But the great ones restrict how you can do those things down to a few patterns (in a way that doesn't actually seem like a restriction).
There are a lot of vocal people who make it seem like you should be doing everything in Go or Angular or what have you, but I want nothing to do with either, and do not have problems that those are meant to solve. I love ruby, and I love rails.
DHH regularly sounds the drum of rationality - in a community at large of idealists and extremists. He is the reason I got into programming, and constantly serves to remind me that what I'm doing is, in fact, perfectly fine; and that everyone else puts up with a lot of nonsense for no great reason.
There are other frameworks out there, but you'd be hard pressed to find one with a leader that has such a sense of direction and reason for why the framework does what it does, and does not.